The Connecticut Department of Veteran Affairs didn’t properly monitor whether employees approved for telework were actually in the office or working from home, according to a report from the state auditors, which also found faulty overtime approvals and lax oversight of overtime approvals.
According to the audit report, DVA employees are required to sign into their shifts using a Kronos system and indicate whether they are working in the office or from home, but the audit found the department didn’t properly monitor whether employees adhered to their telework agreements.
The auditors reviewed Kronos data for ten employees who had either routine or situational telework agreements with the DVA and found that “The Department could not provide support that seven employees worked in the office for 110 full or partial days,” and “Two employees recorded regular hours for nine days when they teleworked.”
“The department does not have a formal process to document supervisory approval of employees’ occasional changes in telework days,” the auditors wrote. “By not complying with the department’s policies and the state’s telework agreement, there is risk employees may not be working on site as reported, resulting in potential inefficiencies.”
Under the state’s telework agreement, employees can be approved to work from home for any number of workdays following an agreement between state employee unions and Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration during the COVID-19 pandemic and a subsequent arbitration decision that cemented the policy.
Under the arbitration decision, unionized employees can only protest a telework determination that requires them to report to the office more than one day per week, but employees can be approved to work from home full-time, resulting in some employees being able to work from other states, sometimes as far away as Florida, according to a review by Inside Investigator.
An investigation into employee discipline at the DVA found that one former director was ousted by the department and investigated by the Office of State Ethics after they claimed he was using his one telework day per week to work at a second job. The former director vigorously denied those allegations and claimed that other employees were abusing family and medical leave time to work other jobs.
The DVA responded to the auditors, claiming it has updated its Kronos policy “to require employees who are teleworking to indicate telework in Kronos whenever the employee is teleworking, including full or partial days,” and that, “any telework that is outside of regularly scheduled telework must be approved and recorded by email between the employee and the manager or designee.”
The audit also determined the department had lax oversight of overtime and compensatory time approvals, lacking the required documentation for both. According to the audit, employees were filling out the wrong forms for overtime approval and supervisors were approving them anyway.
“The employees used the DVA Employee Time Request Form used to request paid leave rather than the DVA Overtime/Compensatory Time Approval Form. As a result, the department did not adequately document whether the overtime hours requests were properly approved, accurately calculated, or appropriately recorded,” the audit states. “The use of incorrect forms and delays in supervisory approval appears to be the result of a lack of management oversight.”
The audit, which was for the years 2022 and 2023, noted the DVA’s overtime expenditures were roughly $1.8 and $1.7 million, respectively. Since that time, DVA’s overtime costs have increased to $2.2 million at the end of fiscal year 2025.
The DVA agreed with the auditor’s findings and indicated the department had updated its policies and “provided training on the proper procedures to all managers.”
“We have revised our Overtime Request form to ensure that all approvals are documented on the form prior to overtime being incurred except in cases of emergent or urgent matters where there is not sufficient time to obtain prior written approval,” the department responded. “Lastly, managers or their designees must submit a copy of the approval to the DVA Payroll Office no later than the last day of the pay period in which the Overtime occurred.”
Was this article helpful?
Topics on this page
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
That’s because Watts and Kaiser came up with the new attendance policy which basically copied the old one but making it harder to discipline attendance violators. It was also written to appeasing the unions and those that violate sick time! When this gets out of hand and the Commissioner is looking for answers both of them run into the Commissioner’s office blaming the manager for their actions and incompetence. Which in fact the incompetence falls upon them and their lack of how to do their job!! When it falls apart for them Andy Kaiser blames everyone around him and Bethanne Watts just cries!! Calming she made a mistake! But in reality if you can’t control the employees attendance, and discipline for sick time abuse. This causes an increase in overtime and burnout for those employees that are forced to stay to work someone else’s shift! Also when they allow FMLA and ADA fraud to continue and not investigate because they are afraid of how it looks to their bosses and Unions this also drives up overtime in burnout!!
Urgent Call for Accountability at the CT Department of Veterans Affairs
To the Editorial Team,
The persistent leadership inconsistencies at the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) in Rocky Hill have reached a breaking point. Under the direction of HR Business Partner Bethanne Watts, Andrew Kaiser, and Commissioner Welch, the agency has fallen into a pattern of mismanagement that compromises both taxpayer funds and the services provided to the agency
The following critical issues require immediate investigation by state leaders:
I. Fiscal Mismanagement and Overtime Crisis
Despite an agency size of fewer than 275 employees, the DVA has incurred a staggering $2.2 million in overtime costs.
• Failure to Retain: This expense is a direct result of leadership’s inability to retain staff.
• Lack of Oversight: There are documented reports of FMLA and ADA fraud. Despite being notified, HR leadership Bethanne Watts has reportedly failed to investigate these abuses, forcing remaining managers to mandate staff shifts to cover attendance gaps.
II. Misallocation of Professional Resources
At a time when clinical care should be the priority, professional resources are being severely mismanaged:
• Clinical Staff in Administrative Roles: A credentialed Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP), Layth Haddad, is currently tasked with managing the Kronos timekeeping system rather than providing clinical care at the Levitow Healthcare Center.
• Questionable Reclassification: Given the current low caseload, it is fiscally irresponsible to pay a specialist’s salary for administrative data entry while veterans in skilled nursing could benefit from their clinical expertise.
III. Administrative Neglect and Oversight Failures
The 2022/2023 audit revealed a “missing in action” leadership culture:
• Out-of-State Payroll: Serious allegations have surfaced regarding senior staff, including Tammy Marczyk, reportedly residing and seeking new employment in Florida while remaining on the Connecticut state payroll. Retired Deputy Commisioner Joseph Danao Remotly working from Hawaii, Floriday and New Hanpshire.
• Fiscal Absence: The fiscal team’s absence has left subject matter experts in the field without the resources necessary to purchase essential supplies for veterans in skilled nursing and residential domiciles.
IV. Toxic Culture and Systemic Errors
The leadership culture at the DVA appears to prioritize “phony inspirational quotes” over actual policy consistency. Significant errors in the timekeeping system were identified prior to the Kronos implementation, yet they were ignored by leadership, leading to the current fiscal chaos.
________________________________________
Conclusion: A Call for State Intervention
The State of Connecticut must investigate these discrepancies immediately. Taxpayer dollars should be used to serve our veterans, not to mask the administrative failures of leadership that has consistently failed to manage staffing, policy, and fraud.
We must ask: How can Bethanne Watts, Commissioner Welch and Andrew Kaiser’s leadership remain in place when their tenure is defined by hundreds of millions in wasted dollars and a lack of commitment to the people that they serve? It is time for Connecticut’s leaders to step in and restore integrity to this agency.
Respectfully,
Are you serious???…. “Their tenure is defined by hundreds of millions in wasted taxpayer dollars.” Hahahaha… “fiscal chaos”… LOL…..HUNDREDS of MILLIONS!!!! You are getting wild. What a fantasy world type accusation! Come back down to reality buddy. Maybe working from home was abused. Maybe FMLA and sick was abused. Unfortunately it’s everywhere. Every workplace. People are only human. Sounds like you have a grudge with a few DVA individuals though. Maybe just let it go. Is it your life’s new mission to attack the place through article after article???!!!!!! “Phony inspirational quotes!!!!!!” ….That is awesome. You could write poems with your sweet words!
Ulysses S. Grant is no doubt a current DVA employee who feels threatened by a possible investigation into the facts. Is it possible you are concerned that your abuse may be discovered?
Investigations non-stop! Naughty naughty! Quite the place. Working remotely can be very convenient. Don’t abuse the convenience. At the least, just do your job…….if you even still have one. I don’t get threatened, mostly because if I were to think about doing something questionable….I stop and say to myself…. “would an idiot do that”…..and if they would, then I do NOT do that thing! Cheers pal.